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Thursday, 29 May 2008

At last weekend's class, we made these very cute gift bags that very clever Kellie showed me how to make & a very simple matching gift card. The bag's dimensions are approx 10cm x 13cm x 4.75cm & you'll need a 30.5cm x 20cm piece of patterned paper to make it. This size gives a nicely proportioned bag, but even better, it leaves you with a card width of paper to make a matching card. I used 5/8 inch grosgrain ribbon for the handles, which gives the bag a really elegant look.
The matching gift card is so simple to make too. The card front is a 6.5cm square & I added a strip of matching paper & a strip of card stamped with 'thank you' from the brilliant 'Short & Sweet' set.
Once I'd made one bag, I had to make more, so then I made this one with some olive Prints paper. Instead of handles, I punched a centred hole with the horizontal slot punch, fed through some olive grosgrain ribbon & tied a bow. Then I made a quickie matching card with the remaining paper, olive & vanilla card, always artichoke ink & vanilla grosgrain ribbon.
At the class, each person used some Prints patterned paper in either close to cocoa, old olive or certainly celery to make their bag. I made this celery Prints one & used celery grosgrain for the handles.Berry bliss baby
For this one, I used paper from the yummy 'Berry Bliss' pack & pink taffeta ribbon for the handles. The bag was saying 'baby' to me, so I made a matching baby gift card.The pretty in pink card front is 8cm square overlaid with more paper, ribbon & pretty in pink strip stamped with 'welcome baby' (again from 'Short & Sweet'). Then I stamped, coloured & punched out a cute little baby from ''All in the Family' & matted her with dimensionals on a close to cocoa circle. Did you know?The secret to a great looking bag is just accurate measuring, clear scoring & crisp folds using your trusty bone folder. If you haven't got one already, you just have to get one!
'Short & Sweet' is my absolute favourite greeting stamp set at the moment, as it works well with so many occasions, works well on cards on its own or with the oval & word window punches, has matching image stamps for quick backgrounds & best of all it's only $29.95! If you don't believe me, check out lots of my recent projects!
If you'd like more information on how to make the bags, just let me know.

Tuesday, 27 May 2008

Here I am again with some more Fall Flowers paper projects. This time it's a bag & card. These are sort of a work in progress, as my initial intention was to make a bag to hold a set of cards, but so far, I've just made the bag & one card!

The Bag

I made the bag with part of a 12 x 12 sheet of Fall Flowers paper, & sized it to fit standard sized cards & C6 envelopes. The tabs at the handles are punched (tab punch) & I added pewter jumbo eyelets. The handles are blue bayou double stitched ribbon. I also made up a matching envelope with the leftover paper & inserted a little stamped soft sky tag. In case it's hard to see, the paper colours are blue bayou, soft sky, old olive & kraft.

The CardThe card is a case of one I saw in a US Stampin' Up!® magazine & I used 'Office Accoutrements' & 'It's Your Birthday' stamp sets to make it. The base is kraft card with some 'Fall Flowers' paper added (& punched with the spiral punch). I stamped the 'Office' memo stamp in old olive onto whisper white card, added the birthday greeting & then punched the top with the spiral punch. I stamped the large 'Office' flower (& the smaller stamped flower piece) with soft sky ink & card, cut it out and added a jumbo pewter eyelet to the centre (with my trusty cropadile). Finally, I attached a stamped Fall Flowers paper tab (tab punch) to the front, so that it lined up with the inside edge.

Clippie BookmarksYou may have noticed some clippie bookmarks in the first pic too, but here's a bigger pic of them. I saw these clippies on the very talented Karen Thomas' blog & decided to try making some too. They're super easy to make & very cute, especially if you have as many punches as I have!

I used 75mm paperclips & 5 petal flower, 1 3/8 inch circle, 1 ¼ inch circle punches to make them. The colours are blue bayou & soft sky (ink & card) & wild wasabi & whisper white card. The clippie flower on the left is stamped with a 'Be Happy' flower, punched out with the 5 petal flower punch, & I added a blue rhinestone brad in the centre (circle 'ice' brads). The right clippie is stamped with an 'In the Spotlight' flower & I used a brad from my scrap stash at the centre. The clippie in the centre shows the back of both clippies. The stamp is also from 'In the Spotlight'.

More Clippies

I also made these clippies at the same time:

This pic shows the front & back of each clippie. For these, I used the scallop punch & the same circles as before. The 'Smile' stamp from 'Be Happy' & flower from 'Big Pieces' are stamped using the rock & roll technique using groovy guava & purely pomegranate ink.

Stay tuned for one more Fall Flowers project from last weekend's class!

Monday, 26 May 2008

I saw a tutorial for this treat box on Splitcoast ages ago & added it to the list of things to try sometime, but only just got around to making one now for Kellie & I's display at the fundraiser this Saturday.

It was really easy to make – you just need 1 sheet of 12x12 cardstock & 2 sheets of patterned paper, some ribbon & and eyelets. You can find the full Splitcoast tutorial here.

For this box, I used a sheet of old olive cardstock, 3 different sheets of gorgeous Fall Flowers designer series paper, white grosgrain ribbon & some pewter jumbo eyelets set with my new cropadile (love it!).

You'll be seeing lots more projects using 'Fall Flowers', as it's my current favourite out of all the new designer series papers, so watch out for it again.

Sorry about the lack of posts in the last week. I've been really busy with family things & busily making projects for last weekend's class, a workshop & a fundraiser stall I'm doing with Kellie this weekend.
I've gone a bit patterned paper mad, so you'll be seeing lots of it over the next week, starting with this cute little (& I mean little) triangle box.I saw a template for the box in Paper Crafts Magazine & decided to make a little one using some Always Amethyst 6x6 Designer Prints paper from the special Palette of Prints sampler pad.
Once I made up the box, I added a white band, trimmed it with celery grosgrain & made a circle motif. To make the motif, I punched white & amethyst circles (1 ¼ inch & 1 inch) & a celery flower (spring bouquet punch). Then, I stamped thank you in amethyst ink (from the level 2 hostess set, 'In the Spotlight) & punched it out with the ¾ inch circle punch. Can you tell I love my punches? It's hard to see but both the flower & greeting circle are mounted on dimensionals to pop them out. I mounted the motif near the top of the box, as I thought it made it look like a flower head attached to a celery ribbon stem.
I think this little box would be very cute as a place card at a party or wedding (with maybe some almonds inside), or for giving small jewellery items. Of course, you could make a larger one with some 12 x 12 paper too, but in this case, I think small is very cute! Update: Stampin' Up!® have said they're rapidly running out of the Palette of Prints sampler pack, so if you'd like some & haven't ordered it yet, please e-mail me ASAP.
Ta ta for now. I'll be back with more later.

Friday, 16 May 2008

Just got this card finished in the nick of time this week for Kristina's challenge.Here's this week's challenge picture & colour combo. When I first saw it, I thought aaaarrrrggghh, but the colours have grown on me... athough I wouldn't normally combine them all in one card.I do like the way it turned out. Hope you like it too.

And here's my happy card to celebrate Kristina's birthday:...Happy Birthday Kristina – you are seriously awesome. Hope you're having a great day! Instructions:Adhere striped so saffron paper from 'Palette of Prints' paper pad to old olive base. (This paper is only available in May. See this post for more info).Add a strip of turquoise card, stamped with 'happy' (Polka Dots & Paisley). Add pumpkin pie brackets (made with the round tab punch).Attach 3 read red brads to a strip of pumpkin pie card & adhere. Colour flower & extra centre from 'Time Well Spent' with real red, pumpkin pie & so saffron markers. Add a turquoise rhinestone brad to the centre. Mount flower pieces on dimensionals & attach to base. Done!!!

Wednesday, 14 May 2008

I had hoped to complete another of Kristina's colour challenges last week but it didn't quite work out that way. Even though the challenge has finished, I thought I'd still show you what I made. This was the challenge picture & colour combination:

And this is my card:

I have to say I struggled a bit with the pumpkin pie in the combination, but I am pretty happy with the end result. As per the challenge I used brilliant blue, bashful blue & pumpkin pie card & ink & whisper white card. I used a swirl and flower stamp from the 'Priceless' set & a greeting & small flower from 'Short and Sweet'. Each flower has a brilliant blue brad in its centre & is raised on a dimensional. The greeting is stamped in brilliant blue ink on bashful blue card & punched out with the word window punch.

While I found this combination a bit more challenging than I expected & don't expect that pumpkin pie will replace celery any time soon, I'm glad I persevered with it. So, my challenge to you is to try this combination yourself or pick a colour you normally wouldn't use & see what you come up with!

PS: My friends, Sam & Kellie made great challenge cards, so check them out too. If you want even more, see Kristina's faves here.

Saturday, 3 May 2008

It's a big day for the Barnes family today, as it's Cara's 7th birthday. How did my little baby grow so quickly into my big girl? We got her a new 'big girl' bike for her birthday which she loves & is riding really well. I don't think we'll be able to get her inside all day! She's out riding with her grandparents at the moment, so I've snuck in to do a quick post! Here's a pic of the birthday girl.

To our beautiful Cara, I just want to tell you again how much daddy & I love you and we are very proud of you. Wish big & try hard and you'll achieve what you set your heart on.Hope you have a wonderful birthday & a fabulous fun party with your friends tomorrow. Love you heaps. Mummy & Daddy xoxoFor any friends & family out there, Cara would love if you leave a birthday message for her.
Here's the card I made for her.I wanted it to be a fun & girly card & "all about Cara" & am really happy with the final result (although it took its own good time – much like Cara actually!)
Again I've reached for in-colours, this time choosing pomegranate, groovy guava & soft sky card. I couldn't resist using some more spotty & floral rose red Prints papers. Cara' is stamped with the 'Big Deal' alphabet & pomegranate ink onto spotty paper, outlined with the white gel pen & glittered with dazzling diamonds glitter. I added a scalloped mat using the corner rounder. The hearts from 'In the Spotlight' (a new level 2 hostess set) are glittered & mounted on dimensionals. The wish big greeting is from 'Short & Sweet'.
Have a lovely weekend everyone :o)

Friday, 2 May 2008

Thought I'd show you a couple more cards I've made using the poppin' pastels technique I used on this one. Here's the first one.

The layout is a case of a one I liked in the latest 'Impressions' demonstrator mag. I used 'Heartfelt Thanks' & 'Carte Postale' sets and so saffron, rose red & whisper white card, (a combo I saw Kellie use). The spotty paper is Prints Series Designer Paper in rose red. 'Prints' are a great new collection of co-ordinating monochromatic papers in the Idea Book & Catalogue. Instructions:Attach rose red card & rose red prints paper to card. Attach a horizontal strip of rose red across card & tie wide vanilla grosgrain ribbon around card & knot. Secure knot to card with glue dot.Flower: Stamp the outline in basic brown & the detail in versamark ink (use a stamp-a-ma-jig to line them up perfectly!).Use sponge daubers & Stampin' Pastels® to dab on colour. Sponge around edge with pretty in pink ink & mount with dimensionals.And another version...This time, I changed the Prints paper to always amethyst spots, left out the second card layer & coloured the flower amethyst. Everything else is the same, but the look is quite different I think.Want some Prints paper?If you already love using patterned paper in your cards & layouts, or you've never used patterned paper before & would like to try it, check out this great offer. During the month of May only, get a 6 inch x 6 inch pad of double-sided Prints Designer Series paper for only $12.95 (plus s&h) when you spend $35 on any Stampin' Up! products.This one-time offer gives you 48 double-sided sheets in Certainly Celery, Rose Red, So Saffron, Almost Amethyst in a size that's perfect for cards & 6 x 6 inch scrapbooks. Each pad holds twelve sheets of each colour-two sheets of each pattern in each colour.So Saffron & Almost Amethyst Prints are ONLY available in this pack, so if you love these colours, get them now!Single colour packs of 12 inch x 12 inch Prints Designer Series paper are also available in packs of 12 double-sided sheets for just $11.95 packs (plus S&h) – Brilliant Blue, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie & Rose Red.You can find out more about this offer here, or just contact me.

Thursday, 1 May 2008

One of my favourite bloggers is Kristina Werner - an amazingly talented graphic designer & paper crafter. I highly recommend visiting her blog if you haven't found it already. Recently Kristina's been posting weekly colour inspiration challenges & this is the current one:

I decided to play along, so I created this card using my brand spanking new 'Baroque Motifs' set. I've coveted this set for ages, so it was at the top of my new Idea Book & Catalogue order list.

The colours are a totally yummy combination of close to cocoa, chocolate chip, soft sky & very vanilla. The card took a little while to come together, as I usually have a layout in mind before I pick colours, so it was interesting to do this in reverse. I am happy with the end result though. So what do you think - did I meet the challenge?

OK, so you've had to wait more than a day but really, what's a week between friends? J Anyway, back to the post! So, who is Teresa & who or what did she wow? Well, Teresa is Teresa Dabrowski, a fellow SU Demonstrator who wowed us with fabulous emboss resist projects at the SU convention including this design I really loved.

I recreated Teresa's card for my class as it fitted the colouring theme so well & included more new & yummy in colours. You never know when you'll get a bit extra when you come to a class!The colours are river rock, groovy guava & purely pomegranate, (are they great names or what?). The stamp sets are 'Bud Basics' (flowers & leaves...again) & 'Short & Sweet' (greeting).

Instructions On very vanilla card, stamp the large flower, small flower & leaf outlines randomly in versamark ink & heat emboss with clear embossing powder using a heat tool.Use sponge daubers to colour the flowers with guava, pomegranate & river rock ink. The embossed images will resist the ink, so you can still see the outlines.Attach some pierced & torn pomegranate card, torn vellum & groovy guava double stitched ribbon to a river rock card base & mount the stamped vanilla piece on top.Stamp the 'Short & Sweet' greeting in pomegranate ink.

To Teresa, thanks so much Teresa for sharing such great projects with us all. Hope you get your own site going soon so everyone can see your wonderful work!

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